Lose yourself at IKEA

The Emeryville monster store, IKEA, is a colorful and fascinating place for a child (just make sure you don’t have too much on your shopping list!). Take advantage of the little-known family parking lot past the big parking structure and back toward the store. Make a bee-line for the children’s area to hop on beds and climb through the tunnel before grabbing a snack.

Babies can benefit from baby food, bottle heaters, and high chairs in the dining area upstairs.

Toddlers can enjoy the children’s furniture (and toy!) area complete with climbing tunnel and spinny chairs (near the cafe). If you forget a stroller, you can borrow one that doubles as a shopping cart.

Potty-trained preschoolers and big kids can be checked into the children’s play zone like a reverse library system.

I haven’t yet used the childcare zone, can anyone share positive or negative experiences?

I still can’t believe I haven’t put the kids in childcare there. It seems like the perfect place to meet up with a girlfriend, let your kids play while you shop and chat and grab and uninterrupted bite. This is definitely on my to-do list!

Brooklyn asked to go in the childcare one day when I was there with both kids shortly after Landis was born. I was done shopping when she asked, so I checked her in, went and bought myself a bag of Swedish fish and went and read on my phone in the cafe while Landis napped in the Moby.
I thought to myself “Why haven’t I been doing this for the last year that she was tall enough to be in there?!”

[…] Other things to do with kids in Emeryville: Pizza and movie birthday party ; Drop-in crafts at Michael’s stores; Home Depot workshops for kids ; Emery Street Park 5 other reasons IKEA is so awesome for parents and IKEA for babies. […]